Hi, I'm really hoping someone out there has dealt with Type 1 diabetes and can help with some questions and tips.
My son's girlfriend (age 16) has type 1 and is having a lot of problems controlling her blood sugar swings. She frequently becomes very low and comes near passing out. Night time is a problem, as well. She is taking a slow-acting insulin at bedtime, but frequently wakes up in the middle of the night with her blood sugar so low that she can not move, speak, or see, and has to somehow get to her juice or sugar pill to try to bring herself back out of it. Is this common? And, how do type 1 diabetics normally handle this? Do all Type 2 diabetics use a slow-acting insulin at night and why? If they're not eating while sleeping, why do they have to take insulin at bedtime?
Our son brought her home for the day a couple weeks ago and, apparently, she had taken her morning insulin but not eaten and she was almost unconscious before she got here. We gave her OJ and a banana and she had to lay down for about an hour before it kicked in and brought her out of it. We were (and still are) very worried about the lack of control over the dips in her sugar levels. Not sure how often she gets too high.
She does some blood sugar monitoring, because she talks about her fingers hurting from the sticks, but, I think she mostly tends to guess about how many carbs she eats and then injects the insulin. She was diagnosed at age 8, so I guess I'm a little surprised that there are still so many ups and downs. She is an active teen, playing softball, etc, on the high school team, plus other activities at church, etc. And, as a typical teen, she likes french fries, pasta, mac & cheese, etc, but eats very small portions. She does not need to lose weight at all, either.
She does see her doctor regularly, but he seems to have no tips to help her with this, just tells her her A1C is too high and to get better control. Yeah, she knows that, but isn't figuring out how to get the balance right.
If anyone has experience with this and can help, I really appreciate it.